The Sure Shot
by scoutsdream
Summary: Stephanie sees something in Robbie that no one else sees... a human being. Can she convince Sportacus and the others that there's more to Robbie than meets the eye, or will she get in too deep trying to find the man she knows he used to be?
1. Weasel, Weasel, Weasel

Weasel. Weasel. Weasel.

The one word drifted through her head as she watched him. He tiptoed around the town square, not aware that she was watching him. Like a spy, she crouched in the bushes, her big almond eyes peering through the branches, watching his lithe figure creeping about, obviously looking for something. Up to no good, as usual, she thought, shaking her head. She watched as he inspected the ground, shrewdly looking around for something… what it was, she didn't know.

What she did know was that his almost graceful prowl was about to be broken by the presence of a banana peel, right in his path. She wanted to cry out to him, tell him to watch out, but held her tongue, not knowing what he would do if he found her here, watching him. She held in a laugh as she watched the once stealthy beanpole of a man tumble head over heels, landing with a smack on his back. She observed as he waited a beat before jumping almost acrobatically to his feet. He dusted off his legs, and looked around embarrassed, loudly saying, "I meant to do that!" She allowed herself a slight snort at this comment.

He swiveled around on the ball of his foot to face the culprit. He lifted the banana peel disgustedly off the ground, making a retching sound. "Oh, yucky! Figures that my downfall is due to some healthy and useless snack jacket!" He tossed the banana peel over his shoulder carelessly, even though she noted that it landed comically in a nearby trashcan.

He continued his perusal of the area, until it appeared that he'd finally found what he'd been looking for. He disappeared behind the town podium, and emerged holding a red envelope. "It's no good to just leave trash such as this around where just anyone can pick it up! This belongs in a forest or a field, where no one will pick it up!"

Just then, she felt the pollen tickling her nose, and couldn't even stop herself before letting out a giant "CHOO!"

Robbie Rotten looked up from his discovered trash, a horrified look on his face as he observed the pink little girl tumble out of the bushes. "PINKY?"

"Actually, it's Stephanie," she remarked, untangling a twig from her hair.

"What were you doing in the bushes?" he demanded nervously as he helped the little pixie to her feet.

"I was getting my basketball," she lied. "From those bushes. Right there."

"But there are no kids around anywhere, for a pleasant change. You're lying, aren't you!"

Stephanie looked at Robbie, whose dark eyebrows were raised with the anticipation of her answer.

She looked defiantly into his eyes. "No, I lost the ball yesterday. I just didn't want to look for it until just now. What's that?" she asked, pointing to the red envelope.

"Don't change the subject!" he said, stuffing the envelope into his vest pocket. He looked around quickly before leaning toward her more, lowering his voice. "For your information, it's just a letter. I know, little cheerleader, it must surprise you that someone would be sending horrible Robbie Rotten a letter. But I'll let you know now. If it weren't for that Sportafreak, all the kids in town, you included, would LIKE me! And if it weren't for him, I wouldn't go around being so mean all the time!" He shouted his last words at her, making her jump.

"FINE, then, MISTER Rotten, I'll leave you and your letter alone. But I highly doubt that I'd like you ANYtime, even if Sportacus were never around! For your information, Sportacus has tried to be nice to you. But all you ever do is try to get rid of him, which isn't very fair. In fact, we kids are more hard on you than he is!"

Robbie opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by a large red ball sailing through the air and hitting his head with a loud conk. He swore loudly as Trixie and Pixel came running over. "Hey, Stephanie! Come and play with- Huh? Robbie Rotten?"

Robbie, still holding his pounding head, glared. "Don't worry, children, I was just listening to Step-on-me tell me off for wanting some peace and quiet sometimes. Not to mention that I would love to go just one day without any child-inflicted injuries!" He turned to stomp off.

"Robbie! Wait!" called Stephanie, a twinge of concern in her voice. And what else did he detect? Was that guilt?

He turned to face her. "Well?"

"Robbie, I'm sure… I'm sure that Pixel and Trixie are sorry for what they did," she began, elbowing Trixie in the ribcage. Trixie opened her mouth to retort, but Stephanie gave her the look, which meant she had no way out of it.

"S-sorry, Robbie," Trixie mumbled.

"Yeah, we're sorry, Robbie," followed Pixel, sounding more sincere than Trixie.

Robbie looked at them for a moment before opening his mouth. "Well if that's all, I'm just going to go eat some cake, then." He turned back around and started walking toward the billboard on the edge of town.

Once he was out of earshot, Trixie gave Stephanie a little shove. "Why on earth did you want me to apologize to him of all people?"

"Because, Trixie, you have to admit… we can be kind of careless sometimes. We make a lot of noise… I think that if we're a little nicer to Robbie, he'll be a lot nicer to us. He just needs to know that if he really is lonely, which I think he is, he'll always have the option making friends here."

Pixel and Trixie looked at their friend as if she'd gone mental. Trixie picked the ball off the ground and began to walk toward the field. "Whatever you say, Stephanie. We're just going to keep on doing what it is we're doing. Besides, isn't it you who made Lazytown loud in the first place?"

"Well yeah, but-"

"Then don't complain!" said Pixel, surprising Stephanie. She'd at least hoped he would be on her side, as he normally was.

"Well… okay, you guys. Do what you want to do, but from now on I'm going to be nicer to Robbie, I think."

"Heh, whatever, Pinky. If you wanna play some ball, you know where to find us."

Pixel and Trixie walked out to the field, not even saying goodbye. She let out an aggressive hmph, and set out for home.

Pinky… he called me that, she thought, bristling at the nickname Trixie'd given her seven years ago, her first summer in Lazytown. Now she was fifteen, and had learned the ways of the Lazytown kids… Trixie, who had become cattier with age, always looking to pick an argument with Stephanie, the only other girl in their group of friends. Pixel was becoming more and more passive, allowing Trixie to make all the decisions. Ziggy had become a little wiser to the toothbrush and the treadmill, following a strict regimen that he had planned out with Sportacus. It seemed a little extreme to Stephanie, but whatever made Ziggy happy was best, she supposed. Stingy… well, Stingy had already made his first quarter million by the age of thirteen, which disturbed Stephanie greatly. Surely not even her uncle made that much in a year. In a small town like Lazytown, there wasn't exactly much to do with a quarter of a million dollars. She did have a fun time envisioning Stingy sitting atop of all his money, counting it over and over again obsessively.

Then there was Sportacus. It seemed that he got stronger and more agile every day, even though he claimed that age was finally catching up with him. Taking the advice of Stephanie, he'd shaved off his mustache, which relieved several of the town's parents, who'd hoped their children would never get an eye poked out from the sheer sharpness of Sportacus' mustache. Stephanie had to hand it to Sportacus; he was definitely taking care of himself these days.

In general, it was an unwritten fact that she was Sportacus' favorite of all the kids. He listened to her the most, and had been asking her advice more and more as she grew older. Lately though, she'd been getting funny feelings in her stomach whenever she heard Sportacus preaching the active lifestyle to the other kids. Who is he to tell them how to live their lives, she thought. She'd almost said something about it at one point, but had held her tongue. After all, she remembered, he was a good role model, and he was the nicest to Robbie.

But something still made her a little worried every time one of the kids would gush about Sportacus like they used to when they were kids. The gospel of Sportacus, the unwritten Bible of Sportacus. In her opinion it was a little silly.

She had, after all, grown into a wonderful and independent young girl. Her pink dress had become an average outfit including a pair of jeans and a colored top, and her high-tops had evolved into a pink pair of Converse basketball shoes. She'd stopped growing vertically, but was filling into her clothes very nicely. Lucky to be healthy, she thought. Her hair had grown into a darker magenta in the last seven years, mostly from going to school in her hometown and learning that there was more to life than eating right and getting exercise and being a good friend. Even at sixteen, she knew that it was nice to be loved, and a little bit of cake (even a lot of it) didn't really do any damage in the end. She felt good about where she was, and damned if she let anyone else try to live her life for her.

"I'm home, Uncle!" she shouted as she closed the front door.

"Oh, Stephanie, good to see you, dear! Before you do anything else, I'll tell you now that Aunt Bessie and I are stepping out for the evening, so don't expect us home until nine. Leave us a note if you go anywhere, please."

"Okay, I will Uncle Milford!"

When she was twelve, her Uncle Milford, the mayor of Lazytown, had proposed to his secretary, Ms. Bessie Busybody. All anyone could say was that it was about time… her uncle had been in love with Bessie for ages. They had a winter wedding, so Stephanie was able to take the train back to town for the winter holidays to see her Uncle marry Bessie.

Stephanie went into her room and lay down on her bed. She could hear the noise of her friends outside. Over time, their games had gone from friendly to aggressive, all due to the encouragement of Sportacus to "try harder". This perhaps bothered Stephanie the most; even though Sportacus had good intentions, he didn't know what he was doing to her friends.

Speak of the devil, she thought, as she heard Sportacus' voice join the loud yells outside. She heard the front door close as her Uncle and Bessie went out for the evening, and enjoyed the feeling of being all alone. She resented that the quiet was punctuated by the sound of Trixie cursing loudly on the field, which annoyed Stephanie so much that she shut the window and walked out of her room.

She walked around the house for a bit, until she came to Bessie's office with the big town telephone. Stephanie sat down at the clean desk, careful not to disrupt a neat stack of papers sitting next to the phone. She looked at the phone, which had an old-fashioned circular dial. She flipped aimlessly through Bessie's town rollodeck, a collection of everyone in Lazytown's number, until her flipping landed her right on Robbie Rotten.

Maybe I should call him to apologize, Stephanie thought. He'd probably be really mad that I'd call him… probably interrupting his nap or something…

Her mind strayed away from the idea of calling him, but somehow she couldn't stop her fingers from dialing up the numbers. Her heart beating for no reason, she held the phone up to her ear as she wondered what exactly it was she was going to say to Robbie. She had no real reason to call him, after all… no apology was in order… Maybe he won't answer, she thought, half-relieved at the thought.

But as luck would have it…

"Hello?"


	2. Surviving Genevive

Author's Note: _Wow, I never expected that I'd get any reviews, nonetheless four lovely and intelligent reviews such as those, but I did! So a big thank you to the reviewers so far! I think it's safe to say that I love you guys!_

_This chapter is chocked full of Robbie, with an always-fun trip to the backstory department! Yay! Also, I hope you don't mind, but I am also introducing an OC (orig. character) in this chapter. Never fear, she's not a Mary Sue! In fact, I think she's one swell gal. Hope you like this chapter! It's long! Review because you know I love it :)_

Love, Scoutsdream

Robbie made it to the billboard without barely breaking a sweat.

"Those damn kids… tricking me into exercise all the time, planning schemes to foil Sportacus, the hectic costume changes, the running around and setting traps… now I'm all healthy. Disturbing."

He lowered himself into the secret entry to his underground home, making sure to close the lid after himself_. Not like anyone would come to see me anyways_, he thought begrudgingly.

Robbie slid down the chute that led to the inside of his house, and landed with a light plop on a pile of pillows in his large blue living room.

"Funny, I don't remember putting those pillows there…" he said as he stood up.

Suddenly a hand from behind him grabbed his shoulder lightly. "BURGLAR!" he yelled, his heart palpitating as he jumped onto his chair and turned to face the intruder.

His intruder stood smirking at him, a tall and beautiful blonde woman wearing glasses, dressed head to toe in black.

"GENEVIVE?" he shouted, cringing slightly.

"Miss me, big brother?" She laughed lightly, her cold gray eyes flashing, so similar to his.

"NOT REALLY, NO!"

"You haven't changed one bit," she mused, running her hand over one of his orange shag-covered inventions. "Still decorating like you live in Tackytown, I see. It's charming, really."

Robbie stuttered for a minute before he could comprehend everything that had been transacted in the last thirty seconds. "But you're… not supposed to be here! You're supposed to be…"

"In Iceland? Oh, I know. But you know mom and dad, they went to the grocery store, so I skipped out... across the Atlantic. Besides, I missed the place. How long has it been?"

"Fourteen years."

"Has anything changed since I've left?"

"Lots. None of it good, all of it bad."

She crossed her arms and sat down on the pile of pillows. "Tell me all about it."

Robbie got a piece of cake out of his Cake-O-Matic 3000 and sat down in his chair, his heart no longer beating from fear. After all, it was only his little sister.

Robbie and Genevive Rotten had both been born in Iceland, but had moved to Lazytown when their father's sister Rhonda Rotten, Lazytown's librarian, had fallen ill. Robbie's Father, Robert Senior, had sent both of his children to Lazytown to take care of her, and go to the local schools in order to get a better education.

Growing up in Lazytown was a dream come true to the two kids, who were fascinated by all the strange things in their new country. Although they had extensive knowledge of the English language, they had a hard time understanding all the slang and confusing phrases, in the beginning. After a couple of rough days, Robbie and Genevive became the talk of Tri-City High, the high school that harbored kids from Lazytown and two of the other nearby towns. Their popularity spread over all three towns and they quickly became known as the cool kids of the area. Both with striking good looks, sharp intellect, and penchants for being the class clowns, they could take on the world. Not to mention that Robbie Rotten was the star athlete on the Tri-City track team, and could outrun the wind without effort.

Robbie graduated at the middle of his class, but still graduated successfully with full plans to attend a college in Texas with a full scholarship from his running. But Robbie's luck took a turn for the worst, and he ended up fracturing his leg in two different places the summer before he left for college, also the summer his aunt finally died. Even though his aunt left him a large sum of money, his scholarship was revoked, and he became an embittered individual with nothing to do but stay in Lazytown and watch his younger sister shine where he had failed.

Genevive had graduated two years after Robbie at the top of her class, and ironically received a scholarship to the same college Robbie had almost gone to. Every year at Christmas, she would send Robbie random memorabilia from her college, including an extremely fetching mug with a picture of Texas on it. And every year, Robbie became more and more angry with Genevive, as he began to believe she did it to spite him and anger him even further, and he was partially right. Genevive didn't mean to turn her brother so wrong, but she had to live up to her last name sometimes, didn't she? After she graduated, she returned to Iceland to live with her parents and look for work.

And so Robbie moved underground into a dark world much more different than the happy town above him, the one he used to know. From the age of twenty on, he spent most of his days in darkness and solitude, the way he came to know Lazytown, until one day seven years later, one little girl showed up and opened the can of worms. And those worms were very noisy and loved to dance and attracted Sport Elves in too-tight blue outfits. Though he wasn't really one to talk.

Now eight years after that pink brat came into town, Robbie found himself gorging on cake and telling his little sister about how stupid Lazytown was now that it had the addition of Sportacus and Stephanie. At least Stephanie only came during the summer, though.

"All I want is some peace and quiet. Some 'me' time. There's not nearly enough hours in the day to both sleep AND have some quality 'me' time, do you know that?"

Genevive sighed. "Every hour of every day of your life has been devoted to yourself, you idiot. You're extremely self-centered and immature."

"Shut up, you are being so mean!" he yelled, as he covered his head with a pillow. He didn't want to get advice from his stupid sister.

"Robbie, listen to you. All those years in this hellhole you call home and you still have that accent. Don't you ever get out?"

"All the time, I get out. I can't do anything else but 'get out', especially when it comes to foiling that stupid sport jerk and his pink little minion. Besides, I like the accent. It adds some mystery to my persona. Besides, I'm the villain. Villains have great accents. I have a GREAT accent!"

"You're barely a villain. Let's face it, Robbie. You've never killed anyone, you don't like hurting people… physically anyways… You're just very easily annoyed. I suppose I have something to do with that, what with me stealing your scholarship."

"So you admit it!" he shouted, almost jovially. "I was so right! You wanted to hurt me!"

She rolled her eyes. "I've never loved anyone more than I've loved you, big brother. But I stayed away for so long because I knew you had sore feelings about me living out your dream. But now that I'm working a boring job in Iceland, I'd much rather be here in Lazytown eating cake and plotting the next plan to make all the kids lazy, just like you. So I can't really do anything but write you letters. Which reminds me, did you get my last?"

He reached into his vest pocket and produced the red envelope. "I was about to throw it away, actually."

Genevive got up and walked over to look at Robbie's costumes. "Fine, do what you want. Even though you never reply, I know you read them. Nice costumes… hey, that was YOU who stole my dress?" She was pointing angrily at a go-go dancer outfit in one of the glass cases. "I hope you know I looked everywhere for that."

"You're welcome. I was doing you a favor. You looked really dumb in it anyways," Robbie moped as he sat sideways in his comfy chair.

"Do you really wear all of these?"

"Of course I do! Do you know how hard it is to be a villain?"

"No. You have no real reason to be a villain, anyways… Listen…"

Robbie fell silent, as did Genevive. "What are you talking about? I don't hear anything," Robbie said.

"Exactly. No noise. So don't complain about your problems and enjoy the silence for a while."

Just then, the telephone rang. "Eh, spoke too soon, I guess. Who'd be calling you, anyways?"

Robbie rolled out of his chair and walked toward the phone. "I have no clue. No one ever calls me, except when Bessie calls me on accident."

"Can I answer it? Please? If it's Bessie, I want to talk to her! It's been years since I've seen her."

Robbie looked at the ringing phone and looked back at his sister. "If you really want to answer it, go ahead."

"Haha, yes!" Genevive ran to the phone and picked up the receiver. "Hello?" she demanded in a gruff voice and phony accent that sounded nothing like Robbie.

"Who is it?" he mouthed at her.

"Hello? No one, I guess," she shrugged. "Hello this is Robbie Rotten speaking! I'm a big softie and I only pretend that I'm a super badass villain because I'm bitter about my past! To whom am I speaking to?"

Robbie bristled at his sister's insults. He was even if they were in fun, and even if they were partially true. He stamped his foot in protest. "Stop being mean!"

"I'm only telling our silent friend the truth," she retorted as she hung up the phone. "Robbie, no one was on the other line. I was probably talking to some telemarketer. Or a fax. Do you have a fax machine?"

"What does it matter anymore? You've basically ruined my life. Or at least, you've ruined the self-image I've cultivated for myself over the years. Way to go.

"At least that pink little geek made her friends apologize to me today. They threw a ball at me! Well, maybe they didn't throw it at me, but it hit me! And she made them apologize. That was kind of nice."

Genevive nodded. "That does sound nice. Hey, do you still have that periscope that you use to spy on everyone?"

"Why? You don't actually want to see any of these gross people, do you?"

"Well, of course I do. Now where does this pink girl live?"

"Town Hall. Meanswell is her uncle," Robbie said as Genevive located the periscope.

"Oh, very nice. Oh! I see her! She's not pink, it's just her hair that's pink!... Oh. Oh, Robbie. You need to come see what she's doing." Genevive motioned for her brother to come to the periscope.

"But I'm so comfy!"

"This is worth it. Come here!"

Robbie dragged himself out of his chair and over to the periscope. Genevive stood back with a triumphant smile on her face. "Well, have a look!"

He put his eyes to the periscope and saw a blob of pink swimming in front of his eyes. He adjusted the sharpness and observed Stephanie, sitting at Bessie Busybody's desk, looking at a phone directory. "So what? She's probably going to call one of her… stupid friends to go and play loud ball with her, or something."

"Robbie, look at the phone number she's staring at."

He focused in, and saw his own name and phone number on the card in the rollodeck, the one that the girl was staring at. Her hand hovered over the phone, looking as if she was about to call someone.

Genevive jumped up and down. "How cute! She has a crush on you!"

Robbie blushed. "That is so not true! She is probably going to prank call me… any minute now!"

"You always were great with the ladies. Well, as fun as it is to hang out underground with you, I for one, am surfacing to do a little grocery shopping for you. Cake is good, but having Cake-O-Matic sludge 365 days a year isn't exactly a good variety in diet. Did you know that the refrigerator in the kitchen is completely empty?"

"What? I have a KITCHEN?" Robbie asked as he watched his sister get in the tube that would take her back up to the surface.

--- --- --- --- ---

Stephanie was confused. Why was there a woman answering Robbie's phone? Why was the woman pretending to be Robbie? What had she been saying about Robbie not really being a villain? Obviously it was someone Robbie knew very well… why else would she be answering his phone?

After she'd heard Robbie's voice saying something to the woman and the woman answered him in her natural voice, she'd hung up the phone.

Her stomach felt sick. Why did I do that? I'm so stupid, she thought as she stared at Robbie's name and phone number in the rollodeck. She couldn't tell how she was feeling. She couldn't shake the fact that Robbie Rotten had a member of the opposite sex in his own personal quarters. Anger? Not even. Disgust? No… Robbie was a grown man and had every right to keep female company… although what single women did Robbie know? Jealousy? No.

Well, probably not…

She almost picked up the phone again to call back and see if the woman would answer, but thought better of it.

All this thinking about Robbie makes me want to eat cake, she thought. How dumb is that? I'm probably going to have a sugar crash all thanks to stupid Robbie Rotten. Great.

Stephanie put on her jacket and left a note for her uncle, saying she'd gone to the store, even though she knew he wouldn't come back before her. Knowing Uncle Milford, he'd probably come home right as I finish frosting the cake… right in time to eat it, thought Stephanie with a laugh. And with that, she set off for the town grocery store


	3. Stephanie's Assignment

_Okay, I know this is a short chapter, but I just had to get it out on paper before I forgot this idea… I'm making this up as I go along, can you tell? It's pretty short, and you've probably noticed that I've really avoided focusing on Robbie yet… I think the Robbie I'm trying to go for is a little more in-depth than the one we see on the show... and I'm just trying to figure out when I'm going to introduce a bit of the whole romantic bit into this whole thing… probably next chapter there'll be something. This story will span over two summers or so… so keep that in mind. I'm in so much trouble if I can't think of anything, but I'm sure I will think of something._

_Thank you sooo much for all of the lovely reviews! Eight already, how cool is that! I do love them, so keep 'em coming!_

_Love, Scoutsdream._

Genevive stepped into the grocery store, a mental list in mind of things to get for her brother_. He is so stupid_, she thought. _Didn't he see that pretty girl looking at his phone number? What an idiot. He probably does think that she was going to prank call him. But I can't shake that sad look she had in her eyes…_

Passing the vegetable aisle completely (she knew that he wouldn't touch any of it… yet), she headed to the meat counter and picked up some steak. Then she went and bought some cereal, which boasted the label "Kid tested, mom approved". Some sugary trail mix and some yogurt were added to the cart, among tons of other inconspicuously healthy items.

Genevive made her way to the checkout line, when she caught a glimpse of shocking magenta down one of the aisles. She did a double take. _It's that little girl,_ she thought, as she pushed her cart quietly down the cake and cookie aisle.

Stephanie was standing in front of the cake mixes, looking for the right one. _That one is too dry, that one is too sugary, and that one's not sugary enough._ She couldn't seem to find the right one.

Suddenly she spotted one last box on the top shelf. _That's the mix I need_, she thought, as she reached for it. Damn, too short, she thought as she put one of her feet on the bottom shelf to help her, to no avail.

"Need help?" came an amused voice from behind her.

"Yes please," she said as she turned to face a beautiful blonde woman. "Are you new? I've never seen you before."

"I grew up here, with my brother. Then I went back to my homeland for a while. Then I thought maybe my brother might have missed me a little too much, so I came back here to visit him. And his kitchen is horribly bare, so I thought I'd buy him some groceries." The tall Genevive reached for the cake mix on the top shelf and put it in the hands of the much shorter Stephanie.

"Wow, thank you! I hope you're having a good time back here in Lazytown… I'm Stephanie, Mayor Meanswell's niece!"

Genevive smiled and shook Stephanie's hand. "Nice to meet you, Stephanie. I'm Genevive. Genevive Rotten, Robbie Rotten's sister."

Stephanie dropped the box of cake mix on the floor. She quickly picked it up and erased the surprised look from her face. "Really? Robbie Rotten has a sister?" Maybe that's who I heard on the phone, she thought, relieved.

Genevive smiled even more at Stephanie's reaction. "Yes, he does! Don't worry; I'm nothing like him. He's just a softie, really. It's too bad that no one likes him, he's really quite funny once you get to know him."

Stephanie smiled. "Well, if it's any consolation to the other people who don't like him, I'm trying really hard to like him, but he just makes it so…"

"Difficult? I know. He's a horrible brat sometimes. He can be extremely childish if he doesn't have what he wants. And do you know what I think he wants more than anything?"

Stephanie was caught off-guard by Genevive's question. "Um, he wants peace and quiet? A full-length mirror? No more Sportacus?"

Genevive laughed. "Well besides all of those things, I think what he really wants is a friend. And considering that I'm his perfect younger sister, I probably wouldn't make a very good friend.

"I was at his house a while ago, and I realized that he looked very tired when he was talking about being a villain. If I'm not mistaken, he's kind of sick of that lifestyle. Ready for a change, if you ask me. Oh, I'm sure even if he weren't a villain he'd still hate that Sport guy he's always talking about, but still."

Stephanie nodded. It was very interesting to talk to the sister of the town's local villain. And now Stephanie was finding that maybe Robbie didn't want to be so rotten after all. She didn't know how to tell Genevive that she already had thought about whether or not Robbie really wanted to be a villain or not, but she didn't say anything.

"Well, I guess I'd better take this stuff back to my brother and get out of his hair before he wrings my neck…"

"You're leaving? B-but you just got here!" Stephanie looked at Genevive suspiciously.

Genevive smiled. "I love my brother, and I know that deep down he loves me too, but he can't be around me for very long before he drives himself insane comparing himself to me."

As they stood in line for the checkout, Genevive turned to Stephanie. "Stephanie, I have a question to ask you."

"O-Okay," Stephanie stuttered. She wondered if Genevive was going to ask about the phone call. After all, Bessie was the only one in Lazytown who probably knew Robbie's phone number.

"Robbie doesn't know I'm leaving tomorrow. But I can't have him eating the way he's been eating lately. So I was wondering if… I can trust you, can't I?"

This was only getting weirder, but Stephanie wanted to know what was going on. "Yeah, you can trust me. What do you want me to do?"

"I am going to give you some money," she began, digging through her wallet. "Well, not some, I'm going to give you a lot. And I need you to buy healthy groceries for Robbie and leave them somewhere where he'll find them, where his house is. You don't have to go underground to deliver it to him, just put it behind the billboard of the cows in the field. He probably won't ask any questions about it. Knowing him, he'll just keep it for himself, and eat it."

"Even if it's healthy?" asked Stephanie, unsure about the plan. Genevive nodded. _Being Robbie's secret dietician sounded more like something Sportacus would be better at, _she thought. _It could be kind of fun to pack him lunches, though_, and she began planning entire meals to leave Robbie.

"Robbie would eat anything, as long as it isn't blatant vegetables or something. And I can't blame him, really… who wants to eat just a stalk of celery or a plain carrot? It has to be disguised."

"Just like him," Stephanie said. "Okay, I'll do it. I'll be Robbie's secret dietician when you leave. It could probably be fun!"

"Sounds like a plan! Listen, what I'm going to do is put some money onto a grocery card, and when it runs out of money, you just give me a call and I'll electronically add more on. Okay?" Genevive said, handing a card to the cashier to load up with money for Stephanie.

Stephanie couldn't help but smile widely as the checker finished with her items. To be able to secretly help Robbie was something that was right up her alley. "It's actually starting to sound really fun!" Stephanie and Genevive walked out side by side, like they'd known each other for ages.

Before they went their separate ways, Genevive turned to Stephanie. "Thank you so much, Stephanie. Really, I know it doesn't seem like much. But for me, it's good to know that there's someone in Lazytown who will look out for Robbie's best interests."

Stephanie looked up at her new friend, whose eyes had the same shocking and bright but cold quality as her brother's. "You know, I grew up with Robbie always running around and being silly while trying to make us quiet… sure, it was annoying, but I know that no one's perfect. And meeting you… has only given me more reason to believe that Robbie is a human being with feelings, and all the things that no one would ever think that Robbie would have. Genevive, you can honestly count on me to make an effort to help your brother. I think he's worth it, no matter how much he hates me."

Genevive smiled. "I don't think anyone could hate you, darling. You're too beautiful on the inside for anyone, even my brother, to ever have negative feelings about you. And it doesn't hurt that you're cute, either. Robbie always liked the cute ones." And with a wink and a wave, Genevive walked away with her grocery bags, leaving the blushing Stephanie in the twilight with a bag of cake mix and a card with money to buy groceries for the town villain.

On her way back to her brother's house, Genevive heard someone counting in the town square. Curious to know what was going on, she walked toward the _noise. Someone must be counting their money_, she thought, her interest peaked.

"Eight hundred seventy two, eight hundred seventy three…"

Genevive looked into the town square to see a muscular man in blue doing sit ups. She watched as his body deftly left the ground as his pectorals squeezed together. She smiled devilishly. _The Sportacus fellow_, she thought, as she walked closer.

She watched him for about twenty sit-ups more, before clearing her throat. Startled, but still swift to get up on his feet, he smiled and held out his hand. "Are you new here?"

Looking into his bright blue eyes, Genevive smiled as she shook the man's hand. "You know, Sport man, you're the second person to ask me that tonight. Technically yes, I am new here. Things are a lot different here than they used to be, that's for sure."

"And what is your name? I'm Sportacus."

"Nice to meet you, Sportacus. I'm Genevive."

Sportacus stepped back for a minute and looked hard at her. "You look so familiar… your eyes. They remind me of something."

"I'm sure they do." she trailed off as she looked away. "But I must be going now. Farewell, Sportacus."

"Goodbye Genevive," Sportacus waved as Genevive looked back over her shoulder. _Well, Robbie was right about one thing,_ she thought as she neared the billboard. _He certainly was good at doing sit ups…_


	4. Not Exactly Cooking By The Book

_DID YOU MISS ME?_

_I had to work this week. A lot. Barely any time for writing, which saddens me, because this story is going fairly well. Good paycheck, though  Luckily enough, this story was given an entire post at the Lazytown community over on livejournal by musachan. It was cool to see how many LT people on livejournal actually…read this story. (I love all the lj people who read this, FYI!) _

_Yayness! Anyways, this chapter is kind of weird. Still not that much Robbie. Some Genevive, a bit of Stephanie, and the antics of my two most favoritest puppets in all of Lazytown! (Even though they aren't technically dating, I still think they're kind of totally gay for each other.) ;)_

_Thank you for all the reviews! Much love to all of you._

_Love, Scoutsdream_

_P.S. I still don't own Lazytown, yo. That belongs to Sportacus, you heard?_

By the time Genevive got back down to Robbie's place, she found him gently snoring in his favorite chair. She took a moment to look at her brother. Never did he look more relaxed than when he was sleeping. His eyebrows weren't knit in frustration, nor was he maniacally jumping around like a drug addict. He was gracefully slung across the chair, looking like he was strategically placed to look even slightly arrogant in his sleep. Shaking her head, she quietly tiptoed into his kitchen, hoping the rustling of the plastic bags wouldn't wake him.

Unpacking the groceries, she thought back over the evening. _All these new people,_ she thought, _that I never knew existed._ Part of her wished that she still lived in the town with all the interesting characters that were around. From what she'd gathered from the talk her and Robbie's discussion earlier, there were several teens in the town, not just the wonderful Stephanie.

Stephanie had come as such a surprise to her_. How nice to walk into the grocery store and walk out with groceries and a new friend_. In her mind, she thought that Stephanie, although considerably younger than her brother, might be just the girl to melt his heart. Sweet, funny, caring, good-looking… Stephanie, in a way, reminded her of herself when she was younger. Although, Genevive was positive that Stephanie didn't have a mean bone in her body; if she did, it was a very small bone. Genevive knew she had a few mean bones. She liked to think that one was in her right leg, and the other was one of her ribs. And probably one or two of the discs that made up her spine were a little mean, as well.

A couple of hours later, all the groceries were put away and Genevive had made dinner, which the sleeping Robbie probably wouldn't discover for a few more hours. Genevive decided to explore Robbie's underground lair a little bit, and discovered that it was much larger than she'd previously thought. There were a couple trap doors, several dusty bedrooms, and more wacky inventions and disguises than she knew what to do with_. Maybe I'll stick around for one more day_, she thought, as she retired to a guest room, presumably never used. Slumping onto the bed, she took a look at her watch and realized that it was only seven fifty in the evening. But all the taxing events of the day had taken their toll, and within seconds, she was asleep to the world.

Stephanie didn't know if what she was feeling had to do with the flattery of Genevive telling her she was cute, or if it was just the sheer embarrassment of not being able to take her mind off of either Genevive or Robbie. When she finally arrived back at her uncle's house, she realized her face was still considerably warm. She stood on the porch for a minute thinking about how strange Robbie was, before realizing that indeed, she had a cake to make.

Throwing the bag onto the counter, she pulled out the cookbook. She remembered the time when she was eight, and her uncle had commissioned Pixel, Stingy, and Ziggy to make a cake for Aunt Bessie. They'd had a good time making not one, but three cakes, the first of which ended in total disaster, and the second of which looking totally perfect_. Probably the best-looking cake I've ever made_, she thought. But she remembered later that day, when she had tasted the little remains of the first cake, how delicious it had been compared to the cake they'd made for Bessie. _Nothing better than a cake made with ordered chaos,_ she supposed.

Then she remembered what had happened to the second cake they'd made that day. She snorted a little as she remembered Robbie stealing the cake and then trying to blame it on Sportacus. _He's such a… goofball_, she thought as she unloaded all the ingredients. _He goes through so much just to make us shut up or get rid of Sportacus… it's no wonder he's the skinniest man in town. Even with all the cake! For someone so lazy, he's one of the most active people I've ever seen._

She glanced at the cake recipe in the cookbook, but quickly closed it. She could remember how to make a cake, and she didn't need a stupid book to tell her how to do it. _Cooking by the book, indeed_, she thought as she poured the mix into a bowl. She was about to crack an egg over the mix when a loud knock came from the door. A glance at the clock told her it was only seven thirty, so her uncle couldn't possibly be home yet! "Coming," she yelled as she ran to the front door.

"Who is it?"

For the second time that night, a faux-gruff voice answered, "It's Robbie Rotten; let me in!"

Stephanie blushed as she yelled back "Shut up, Stingy. I'll only let you in if you admit it's you!"

"Me too, Stephanie!" came another voice.

"Ziggy!" Stephanie exclaimed as she threw open the door and took her two friends into a hug. "I'm so glad to see you two, you have no idea!"

Stingy shrugged as he pulled on his red bow tie. "Well, we heard what had happened with you and Trixie and Pixel a couple of hours ago, so we came to see how you were. Plus, I smelled cake and I'm pretty sure it's mine."

Stephanie laughed and shook her head as she led her friends into the kitchen. "It's not even that big of a deal what Trixie and Pixel said. It's just…"

"It's been happening a lot lately, we've noticed," said Ziggy, picking up an apple from the basket on the counter. "Especially to you. Trixie's been really on-edge lately, even Sportacus says so."

Stephanie rolled her eyes and added some water to the cake mix. "Well, I'm used to Trixie being mean, so that wasn't a big deal. It just made me mad because… they were being rude to someone else, and I basically had to force them to apologize."

Stingy was absentmindedly spinning a quarter between his fingers, but looked up when Stephanie mentioned someone else. "Who? Was it Sportacus? Major drama!"

"No, it wasn't Sportacus," Stephanie pragmatically replied, but not before yet another eye roll. "It was… Robbie."

"Stephanie, why would you care what they said to Robbie? Are you in love with him or something?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows. Ziggy gave a high-pitched giggle.

Stephanie blanched furiously. "Of course not, you dork. What would even possess you to say that? But anyways, if everyone is nicer to Robbie, eventually I think he'll reciprocate."

"Doubt it," said Stingy, hopping off of his chair and going over to help Stephanie. Even though Stingy was rich, he had become much more considerate of his friend's feelings over the years. "What can I do for you, mistress baker?"

"Well, Prince Stingy, you can start making frosting if you like," she laughed. "Any color you want." She tossed him a cooking hat, and put one on herself. She held a third out to Ziggy, who was still working on his apple.

"I'd probably better not," he said, waving the hat away. "The temptation would be too great. That hat brings out the baker in me. And the baker in me is a serious sugar addict. Besides, Sportacus said-"

"Ziggy, I really don't give a damn about what Sportacus says about cake or whatever. You only live once, so why not start now?" She said, still holding out the hat. After a moment, he grinned and grabbed in, and joined right in the baking activities.

After the cake went in the oven, it was time to color the frosting. Ziggy and Stingy sent Stephanie out of the kitchen as they colored the frosting and frosted the cake. To be tempted not to take a peek into the kitchen, she went in the living room and turned on the TV and found herself nodding off.

In her sleep, she saw herself buying groceries for Robbie. Only, in the dream, she delivered the groceries right to his front door, even though she had no idea what his front door looked like, or even if he had a front door. He flung the door open and swept her into a grateful bear hug, and her heartbeat quickened just thinking about it. "_Thank you for the groceries_," the Dream Robbie yelled right into her ear. "_You're welcome_!" Dream Stephanie yelled back.

And then he kissed her. "_Are you in love with him or something_?" a voice echoed in her mind as their lips still locked together in happiness. "_Are you two in love or something_?" Nothing could be better.

"TA DAH!" two loud voices came, snapping her out of her dream. She felt all clammy as she looked up at the clock. Eight thirty. It was easy to keep emotions from her face. She didn't even know how she was feeling. The room was dark, except for the glow from the TV and the light streaming from the kitchen. Ziggy and stepped out of the kitchen and flicked on the living room lights, a cake in his hands.

The cake had two different colored stripes of pink. Ziggy held it out. "Do you like? In honor of you!" She nodded, not wanting to say anything, for fear of spilling out her dream.

"What about _this _cake?" mischievously asked another voice, as Stingy stepped out of the kitchen and stood right next to Ziggy. One look at the second cake, and Stephanie thought she was hallucinating. It was frosted in blue, purple and burgundy "In honor of… your boyfriend Robbie!" Him and Ziggy laughed jovially.

"I… I think I'm gonna be sick," Stephanie said as she ran to the bathroom, her hand covering her mouth.

"I told you it was a bad idea, Ziggy!" said Stingy as they both took slices of the cake and sat down on the couch to watch TV.


	5. It's all in who you know

_**YEY! Another chapter! This story is getting more developed, I'll admit, but I feel bad for not diving right into the kissy kissy stuff. That will come in later chapters, though. Probably as soon as the next chapter. The next chapter will probably be the end of Stephanie's summer in Lazytown, but the chapter after it will pick up one year later. So don't worry, it's not nearly over yet. As long as my sick mind is still working, this fic will live on. Tons o' Robbie in this chap, I promise. Plus, a cliffhanger! Cliffhangers are great. They get me motivated to actually… write!**_

_**Your faithful writer,**_

_**Scoutsdream**_

-----

Robbie forewent dinner that night, choosing sleep in the place of eating. His dreams were shaky and hazy, but he managed to find himself in a cold sweat when he opened his eyes the next morning. He woke up to find his lair not dark and quiet as usual, but found all the lights on, and a faint sizzling sound coming from the kitchen. He reluctantly dragged himself from his chair and walked into the kitchen he never had used.

Genevive stood, dressed to the nines except for a gaudy pink apron, flipping eggs. She turned to find her brother looking strangely at her, as if he didn't know what she was doing. "Morning, sleepyhead!" she sang cheerfully, as he walked by her and sat at the dusty table.

"Since when do you cook?" He asked sarcastically.

"Since five minutes ago when I got hungry," she retorted as she plopped the eggs onto two plates, and a couple pieces of toast. "You didn't even eat the dinner I made last night?"

"I was asleep, you dork," he said through absentminded bites of toast. Genevive smiled to herself, noting that her distracted brother was eating healthily and didn't even realize it. "What was it you made, anyways?"

"I don't know. Something heal- something… hellishly… delicious. The leftovers are in the fridge if you want any after I leave," she hastily covered up her slip, reminding herself that she shouldn't say the H-word around her brother.

Robbie paused in his eating, and looked at her. "When was it you said you were leaving?" he asked, in a feigned casual manner. Now that she was here, he certainly didn't want his little sister to leave.

She beamed at Robbie, and his stomach panged… only one other person ever smiled at him like that… so quick to forgive.

His dream from the previous night came back to him in pieces. The little pink one was crying, because Sportasmell had done something mean to her… she was all alone, and he asked her what was wrong, even though he didn't really want to know, but there was something so sad in her eyes. The last thing he remembered was her hugging him and whispering something in his ear…

"Robbie? Robbie, Did you hear what I just said?"

Robbie snapped out of his memories to find his sister looking expectantly at him. He laughed embarrassedly and picked up a piece of toast, and shoved it in his mouth. "Unf un heuhn hainen!" he screamed through the toast crumbs, knowing that she'd have to repeat herself.

"Robbie… Oh, I said… Well, I asked if it would be okay if I stayed a couple more days. Is that alright?"

Robbie swallowed quickly, nearly choking. "Well... I guess it's okay," he said, not wanting to let his sister know how happy he was.

"Well, good. Maybe by the time I leave, you'll have yourself a girlfriend!" She said quietly, folding her arms.

"Yeah… whatever. Listen, maybe I should show you around town. Show you all the stupid people, you know… get you up to speed on all the town losers. That sort of thing. And then you can buy me some ice cream!"

Genevive rolled her eyes as her brother ran giddily out to his lair to get ready_. Of course he wants ice cream_, she thought. _But he is, of course, getting frozen yogurt instead_.

-------

The night before, Stephanie had been hugging the toilet quite violently when her aunt and uncle had come home. Stingy and Ziggy filled Mayor Milford in on Stephanie's sudden feelings of sickness, but didn't tell the mayor why she was throwing up. They also managed to evade the mayor's questions about the smell of cake coming from the kitchen, because they had eaten all of it to "get rid of the evidence", as Stingy had put it.

Stephanie didn't get much sleep that night. She was too busy thinking about Robbie, and wondering why everyone was joking or making remarks about her and him. _Together. Weird, and wrong_, and… she didn't know what else to think. Like she'd written that one time in her diary, she knew deep inside of her that Robbie really was a softie. A genuinely funny and nice guy. Well, maybe not nice. But… _nicer than he looks._

At about four o'clock in the morning, she decided it was useless to wonder why people thought things like that. She laughed quietly, remembering one time a few years back, when she witnessed an interesting scene; Robbie had dug a hole for Sportacus to fall into and hid in the bushes, and Stephanie watched from a few yards off as a tiny kitten chased a ball of yarn very near to the hole. Robbie immediately jumped out of his hiding place to pick up the kitten by the scruff of his neck. "No, no kitty. That's not a kitty trap!" The kitten purred slightly, and Stephanie watched, in shock, as Robbie held it to his chest and made baby noises at it. "You are super cute, kitty!" he exclaimed. He rocked it back and forth as Stephanie, very confused, walked away. She had forgotten about that incident until just now, lying sweaty in her bed. She jumped out and pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt, and silently crept out of the house, hoping to not wake her aunt and uncle.

The outside sky was still littered with stars, and a purple hue that Stephanie took in breathlessly. She couldn't remember a more beautiful sky in Lazytown. The morning air was a little chilly, but against her sweaty skin, it felt like heaven. She ran silently into Town Square, and looked around, amazed at how empty it looked this time in the morning. She was secretly hoping to find Robbie sleeping on a bench, but remembered that he lived somewhere on the outskirts of town, in some underground house.

_Well, no one's around to follow me, so I might as well try to go see where he lives_, she thought, running quietly past Pixel's tall house and down the path to the outskirts of town.

She arrived on the edge of the circular town, and decided to run right around it. She made a mental marking point, and set her stopwatch, just for fun. In her mind, an imaginary gun set off, and she took off with the wind, her hair flying behind her. As she ran, she looked around her for signs of a house that no one would notice. She looked at her watch. 1:05.

In the short distance, she saw the cow pasture billboard. It was growing closer and closer. She almost ran right by it, but turned to examine the billboard. She vaguely remembered Robbie sitting atop the billboard at one point, afraid of his own creation, a vicious robot dog_. Well, this is the place Genevive told me to leave the groceries, so maybe he lives around here_, she thought as she walked near the billboard. She walked up the platform in front of it, looking for some kind of secret latch that led to a secret underground fort, or something. She shrugged, hopping down from the platform.

She peered around the billboard, to find some sort of big pipe leading down to what was presumably the town's water system. She suspiciously walked closer to it, and saw that there was a ladder attached to the side of the pipe. It was still kind of dark, but she definitely saw a ladder. She was about to climb the ladder when…

"Stephanie? Is that you? You have to talk to me _sometime_,"

She froze midstep, extremely frustrated. _Who would be up this early in the morning? Only one person would have that much energy…_

"H-hey Sportacus," she reluctantly turned to face her captor. The blue elf stood, with his arms crossed, smiling at her. "Why are _you_ up so early?" she asked, not bothering to keep the annoyance from her voice.

"Well, it looked like it was gonna be such a nice day, I decided to start early by taking a jog around Lazytown. What are _you_ doing up so early?" he asked, obviously amused with her early morning antics.

"I was just… doing the same thing. The billboard distracted me." She walked over to him, not caring to look him in the eyes. The eastern sky was slowly growing more lavender than purple, and she knew he could see her face, but tried to keep the guilt from it anyways. She was telling the truth after all. The billboard most certainly did distract her.

"Well, I'd be careful if I were you, Stephanie. That's where Robbie lives, down that pipe. I'm not sure if he'd want any early morning visitors." Stephanie was at least glad that the color of her face wasn't visible this time of the morning; otherwise, Sportacus would have seen how deep her blush was.

"Are you saying that I couldn't handle myself with Robbie Rotten? Because I can!" she said defiantly, crossing her arms.

Sportacus laughed, which made her even madder. He put a patriarchal hand on her shoulder. "I know you could handle him, Stephanie. But nowadays I'm not sure if you'd really want to be around him. You're growing up, and he's-"

Stephanie couldn't believe what she was hearing "And he's what? What is he, Sportacus? What is it that he could do to a sixteen-year-old brown belt? Besides, he's not like that. Honestly. He's much too selfish. Sportacus, I hate to say this, but I think that I'm probably the only one in town who really has an idea of who Robbie is. Everyone thinks he's so… mean. Rotten! But I know he's not. He's just a slightly arrogant guy who has some growing up to do. So… leave him alone!" And me too, she thought, as she started running down the path. She could feel Sportacus' confused gaze on her back. She almost rounded the corner when she stopped, turned around and sighed. She couldn't stay mad at him.

"Well? Are you running with me or not?" He smiled and sprinted forward to join her.

--------

Stephanie spent the rest of the morning with Sportacus. They finished their run, and went back to Stephanie's house to eat breakfast. Luckily there was no talk of Robbie, the entire time.

Mayor Milford padded out to the kitchen in his nightgown to find his niece and the local superhero eating omelets and drinking orange juice. "Sportacus! How nice to see you! You haven't been over for breakfast in a while."

Sportacus automatically looked at Stephanie, who was staring into her omelet. _I guess it's _my_ fault Sportacus hasn't been around_, she thought, as her uncle grabbed a muffin and went back down the hall.

She looked at him, sitting across from her. "Sportacus," she began. "I know I've been sort of avoiding you lately, and-"

Sportacus smiled his usual smile. "Well, I did notice that something was a little wrong with you. You don't really talk with me as much as you used to, and we never dance, or anything. You know that you can tell me whatever you have to, Stephanie."

She smiled in spite of herself. "I know. I just wanted to say sorry for not hanging out with you more often. You really are a great friend, Sportacus."

"You are too, Stephanie," he said, clearing his plate from the table.

Stephanie nodded and stood up. The jog from the morning had left her a little sore, so she stretched out her muscles. "Good girl," Sportacus said, happily.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. Hey, we should go play basketball. Then I'll buy you some of that new frozen yogurt at the ice cream shop. Sugar free!"

He shook his head and smiled, happy to have his best friend back. "You're on!" he shouted as she threw the ball at him, and they went out to the court together.

--------

"What flavor should I get? Cherry? Chocolate? Chocolate covered cherries? WHAT!" Robbie yelled at his sister. She looked up to the sky in annoyance. "Or maybe I should get a triple scoop. Those would be… perfect!"

"Robbie, you need to shut up right now. You are NOT getting regular ice cream. If I'm buying, I'm buying frozen yogurt."

Robbie looked at Genevive in disgust. "You are kidding, right? I mean, really?"

She sneered right back at him. "Yes, I mean it. Besides, it tastes just as good as regular ice cream. It's probably even worse for you than ice cream."

"You are such a lying liar."

"Am not."

"Are too!"

This was the spectacle that any passerby would have witnessed in front of the Lazytown ice cream shop, were there anyone around. Two adults, two siblings, arguing over ice cream and frozen yogurt.

Genevive stared directly into her brother's eyes. "You know what, Robbie? You stay out here. I'm going inside to get you some… well, it'll be a surprise. And you are going to eat all of it, and you are going to have a fun day whether you like it or not."

All he did was stamp his foot in protest. Ignoring Robbie, she slipped inside the entrance door shop to get what Robbie presumed was a frozen calcium disaster. Having nothing else to do, he sat down on the bench outside the exit door. Diseased ice cream, what a joke, he thought. Frozen yogurt. How stupid.

"Frozen yogurt, I'm so excited!"

The bell on the exit door to the ice cream shop rang as the door opened and closed_. Great, that stupid jerk Sportacus's getting ice cream too_. Robbie shuddered at the sound of his voice…. He hated him. He hated him so much, he didn't even know what to do with himself. The fact alone that he was just an all around nice guy was enough to make Robbie hate him even more. He mimicked his stupid voice.

"R-Robbie?"

Robbie looked up to see that Sportacus wasn't alone. The blue dork was with Stephanie, who had a huge towering triple scoop of chocolate fudge ice cream. She wasn't eating it, though. She was too busy confusedly staring at him with her big almond eyes, looking too surprised for words, like he was the last person she'd expected to be sitting on a bench in front of the shop. Her mouth was parted just slightly in shock. It took him a moment to realize that he was looking at her the same exact way. His heart was in his throat, and his stomach was in his shoes. He shooed the feeling away, reminding himself that it had only been a dream, a stupid dream. He blinked a little and shook his head.

Stephanie looked desperately away, and Robbie noticed her hands were shaking a little. _Surely she wasn't afraid of him?_ She had turned just about the same hue as her garish but appealing hair, and cleared her throat a little.

Sportacus, uncomfortable and confused, broke the silence. "Robbie! What are you doing here?"

Robbie looked almost scared. As Sportacus asked the question, Genevive pushed her way out of the exit door, two frozen yogurts in hand. "Look what I got for my big brother, I- Sportacus?"

"Genevive?"

"Genevive?"

"Stephanie!"

"ROBBIE!" screamed Robbie, very confused. He grabbed his frozen yogurt from his sister, and walked very quickly away. "Damn you, Genevive! Thanks for the frozen crap," he shouted behind him.

"Oh! You're his sister? That explains a lot," said Sportacus. "Stephanie, how do you know Genevive?"

Genevive looked very confused at her brother's abrupt exit.

Stephanie looked at Sportacus and Genevive, and said, "I'll be right back."…

And followed right after Robbie Rotten.


	6. A Change in Pace, A Lovely Place

_**I can already tell I'm going to need a little disclaimer in the beginning of this chapter.**_

_**I had a really hard time writing this. It took me a few days, as opposed to my usual two hours. I really debated with myself, because I know it's completely not in character activity at all. And normally, I don't hesitate to dive into the weird or sexual in fan fiction (you should read my Harry Potter stuff… it's insane.), but this time is different because this is completely unfunny stuff. I feel like I've betrayed myself to some point, because it's completely out of character. I tried to keep them in character as much as possible, but I feel like all I accomplished with this chapter was putting completely different personalities inside the bodies of Robbie and Stephanie. Robbie is really hard to write seriously, I have to admit. **_

_**So please keep that in mind as you read this. I love all of the reviews, it's completely what's kept me going. And I lied, there's going to be one more chapter involving this summer in Lazytown. But this story's not even near being complete.**_

_**Much love,**_

_**Scoutsdream**_

_**p.s. let me know if you think I should upgrade the rating on the story due to this chapter. I really don't want some random person to read this thinking it's appropriate and then get offended. So please let me know if/when you review.**_

---

Finally away from the others, Robbie reached the quiet and shady thicket of trees, one of Lazytown's undiscovered peaceful places that only he knew about. It was mainly where he went to think when he was tired of being the villain all day. He didn't really ever think about much in particular, just things no one would ever expect him to think about. He couldn't be funny or conniving twenty-four seven, could he now?

Today, though, he had something to think about. _Why did everyone know everyone else? How did Genevive manage to meet not only Stephanie, but Sportacus as well, in the period of less than twenty-four hours? It figures that she'd go out snooping in my town_, he thought. Part of him argued, saying that it was just as much her town as it was his, but that wasn't the point. The point was… he didn't know what the point was. The point was, he didn't feel like being much of anyone at the moment. Embarrassed and confused, he took to pacing in the shady clearing, brooding to himself.

Never once in his entire prowl from the Ice Cream shop did he imagine that any one of the three would follow him. His pacing was interrupted as someone else stepped into the secluded clearing. "Go away, I don't want to talk to you," he began, not bothering to even look to see who it was. He closed his eyes and folded his arms. "I said go away." He opened his eyes to see Stephanie there, holding her ice cream cone out to him.

"I'm not eating this," she said quietly, even though there wasn't anyone around to hear her. "You can have it if you want it."

He sneered and looked away from her. "I'm not really that hungry either. Just dump it or eat it yourself." He began to pace again, shutting her out.

"So that's it?" He turned around to find himself face to face with the girl. Although much shorter than he, she was certainly intimidating with that look on her face. A look of defiance, a look that was supposed to remind him of how unfair he was being. "Do you know how extremely frustrated you make me, Robbie Rotten? In the past twenty four hours, you've made me want to rip my hair out more times than I've ever wanted to before."

"But…butbutbut…-"

"No! Listen. I don't understand you. I don't understand why you're still in Lazytown if you hate it so much. I don't understand why you hate everyone. I don't understand why you hate Sportacus, and I don't understand why you hate me."

Robbie stood still, an eyebrow raised. He obviously wasn't expecting this. "Do you really want to know why I hate Sportacus?"

"Yes," she said.

He sneered. "It started back when I was in high school. There was this super gross guy who was in my grade. His name was Athleticus, and he walked around with a big number nine on his chest. He was such a jerk, I couldn't stand it. Yes, I know, you can't believe there was ever a jerk bigger than me. It's true! Anyhow, the first day I came to Lazytown, fresh off the plane from Iceland, he challenged me to a race. On my first day! I was so scared! Anyways, we raced, long story short, he won, and even though I was a very close second and I wasn't a sore loser, he still teased me mercilessly about it, and made it a point to remind me every day about how I lost a race to him, even though everyone liked me and I eventually became this big track star, whatever. Don't give me that look, it's true! Ask my sister! Who I'll get to in a moment, by the way…"

Stephanie smiled. This was the most Robbie had ever said to her without telling her off for who knows what. Instead, he was griping about someone else for a change. He was actually sharing a story with her! She bit her lip though, when he looked her way. She couldn't give herself away.

"So in conclusion, I hate Sportacus because Number Nine Athleticus, the jerk who came before him, was so freaky. And besides that, if there's anything I hate more than a jerk, it's a goody-goody. Do-gooders are so stupid! Nothing is perfect in the end, so why try to fix something that will just break again anyways?"

Stephanie raised her eyebrow, sitting down on the ground and reluctantly eating the melty ice cream. "Hmm, sounds kinda like the way you always try to shut everyone up, but even if it works for a while, it always gets noisy again. Don't you agree?"

"Don't change the subject! Anyways, about my sister… How is it you know her?"

"She helped me get a package of cake mix on the top shelf at the grocery store."

"…Ah."

Now that he was done ranting about Athleticus, it was finally dawning on Robbie that he had just told Stephanie something he hadn't really told anyone before. It was kind of nice to look down from his pacing place and see the quiet girl listening to him talk. No one really did that. And she did look good sitting still for a change, he noted. She should do it more often.

Uncomfortable in the silence, he began to hum a random tune. Recognizing it immediately, Stephanie hummed with him, until they were both singing half-forgotten words about being a pirate.

"That was so long ago. I can't believe we were so stupid to fall for your disguises," she said, wiping her hand on the grass. She extended the ice cream cone out to him again as a peace offering. "Come on, Robbie… I know you want the rest." Giving in, he sat down a few feet away on the grass and took the ice cream.

"Thank you. See? I know how to use manners!"

She gave him a little smile. "I knew you had it in you."

There was another small silence as Robbie finished off the rest. He looked at Stephanie, sitting there across from him, looking peaceful but nervous. She was looking at the grass, the sky, anywhere but his face. The silence was too loud for any lingering eye contact. He tried to think of something to say, and was about to make a comment on the summer weather, when Stephanie struck up for a change.

"So, you told me why you hate Sportacus… because he's a do-gooder… is that why you hate me?" She finally looked at him straight in the eyes, the eyes that couldn't hide anything.

Robbie looked right back at her with uncertainty. She wasn't exactly the girl he thought she was. She was brave to ask him such a question, and she looked so good just sitting there, staring at him. She didn't only look good, though. She looked fabulous. It was as if he was seeing someone completely different. This isn't the same kid who spent her summers terrorizing me, he thought. It can't be. He found himself tongue-tied, and couldn't form words.

Tired of him stuttering, she launched forward in her words again. "You don't have to be nice, Robbie. I really want to know why you hate me. Because I'll let you know that I'm not really a do-gooder, I grew out of that a long time ago. I couldn't care less about what other people think of me anymore. I'm friends with Sportacus, but I'm not his sidekick, or his crony or anything… And I wish you didn't hate me, because I think that you're really a good guy, whether you want to see it or not. I guess that's the only do-good thing about me… I try to find the good in everyone, and none of my friends think I'm right, and… and I guess that's really all I had to say."

By the time she finished, Robbie could see her eyes shining with tears a little. Obviously she was sad that none of her friends ever agreed from her. Even he could take a little blame for that. When they were younger, Robbie had essentially taught the kids that Stephanie was a killjoy, and to be lazy was to be the Anti-Stephanie… the Anti-benevolent.

He finally found his words, or maybe his words found him. Finally he could open his mouth, and he knew talking a whole lot of nothing would fill up dead space, and would sound nice. He couldn't face the fact that he had sweaty palms and a rapid heartbeat because of a teenaged girl.

"I- I don't hate you."

The sniffing Stephanie looked up a little from the ground she'd been staring at.

"I don't hate you. I don't even not like you. If that makes any sense. I guess you're just different now, and that's good different. Different is good, and-"

He was using space-filling words now, and didn't even notice at first that a hand had slowly crept into his. "A HAND!" he shouted, interrupting his empty train of words. He tried to shake it away, but she wouldn't let go. He could see her smiling a little bit, and dropped his hand to the grass, taking hers with it.

"Ahem… about that…"

"About what?"

"The hand."

"My hand? Or your sweaty one?" she asked with a deadpan face.

His starched collar felt too tight. It was the sun that was making him sweat. Or was it her? He felt a wonderful sense of dread fill his stomach as he realized that he hadn't held hands with a girl in fifteen years. A girl hadn't sat this close to him purposely in fifteen years. A girl hadn't looked at him like that in fifteen years. A girl hadn't sat up on her knees, turned his face and cupped it in her hands, or said "Robbie…" like that… the way girls used to say his name, like it was a possession that they shared with him, an exhaled question, an innocent initiator.

It all happened so quickly. The distance between her and him grew shorter and shorter. Remaining frozen, Robbie did nothing while Stephanie bent all the way forward and placed her lips on his as they gently found their way to his bottom lip and kissed it. Not a full on kiss, just a light touch. The mutual taste of ice cream lingered between them. Scared in the complete rush of it all, Robbie couldn't do anything other than allow himself to be subjected to her experiment. She was the mad scientist, and he was the corpse that she was trying to reanimate. Her pressure got a little more intense, but lessened as she pulled back on him slowly. Her arms slowly snaked around his neck as she pulled him along. He had no choice but to follow her down as she lay on her back, putting him in the power spot.

Finally realizing that he had the upper hand, he froze. What were they doing, exactly? Was it natural that he was thinking rational thoughts at this moment, or should he already have her under his control? She was barely a kid anymore, but she wasn't exactly an adult. Not to mention the fact that twenty-four hours ago, he hadn't even thought of her as more than anything but a bratty princess. But now that he'd finally met the real Stephanie, he understood why everyone loved her. In the moment, he was afraid of scaring her off by allowing his body to react to the events transposing in his mind, even though she'd essentially been the one to scare him in the first place.

In his pause, she opened her mouth to say something. _Don't ruin this for me_, he thought, looking at her on her back, him wondering whether to consider himself on top of her or not. _Don't say you want me, don't say you _don't_ want me. Say nothing_.

"Robbie," she breathed again. "Are you… okay? You aren't mad, are you?"

Robbie looked around. "Do I seem mad? I don't feel mad. I feel… enjoyed."

She couldn't help it, she let out a quiet laugh. "You are."

"I could say the same for you, but I really need to be somewhere by tomorrow, and if we're going to continue this kiss at all in any way, we have to do it now." He had forgotten how easy it was to use humor. But it was hard to forget the girl underneath him, the one pulling him back down into her personal space and inviting him to stay for a while.

Stephanie was surprised with herself. She hadn't known what she'd wanted to do until seconds before she went through with it. She had never forgotten Robbie, and only now she was beginning to understand what he was all about. He wasn't always fair, but he did have his reasons for being the way he was. His eyes made her uneasy, because of their icicle quality. The way they pierced her own eyes, pierced her brain and her heart, and when she looked at him now, she could feel herself drowning in them. But they were also saving her, pulling her to shore and making her act almost irrationally. She only knew how she felt now, and she felt like she'd finally found a friend.

Albeit, it was a friend who was allowing her the hasty pursuit of his lips, indulging her willingness to pull him down with her, didn't even care to hide the fact that he had grown hard against her hip bone as he returned her kiss, and neither did she. It was nice to be loved, but somehow it was more immediately satisfying to be enjoyed. She liked knowing that she could make him shudder by lightly raking her nails across his back, and having the knowledge that it would only make him sink harder into her. She didn't expect it to go on forever. She was pleasantly surprised to feel his hand reciprocating her touch by snaking up the back of her t-shirt. He rested his hand on the small of her back, and simply left it there, lightly feeling the skin there. She could hear his heart pounding inside of her head. So he was just as nervous and scared as she was. She felt almost sick with fear and desire, and realized that no other guy she'd kissed had ever made her feel that way before. The boys back at her school were charming, but none of them had the years of mystery that Robbie had. Not knowing about any girl in his past made the guessing game far more exciting.

She didn't know how far he was willing to take it. She didn't even know how far she was willing to take it, herself. As if he had heard her question, he seemed to come into consciousness about what was happening, and tensed up. As the heat sank to a glow, he let up on the kiss and rolled over to sit up on the grass next to her. Understanding that he wasn't intending to go any further, she rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. She smiled and sighed. "That was…"

"Strange and unfunny," he finished, raising one eyebrow.

"I was going to say interesting, but it's the same concept," she beamed.

"Can I just ask… why you did it?" he asked.

She giggled slightly, looking surprised. "Come on, you were asking for it. You were all 'Oh Stephanie, I don't hate you, you're right, I'm a nice guy', and me, being vulnerable… found it… alluring. Besides, I wanted to see what you'd do."

"Oh, sure… vulnerable… that's funny. Well, I hope I reacted correctly," he said, amazed that the post-kiss wasn't going as awkwardly as he'd thought. Missing the contact, he reached out and laid his hand on her arm. He was glad to see she blushed a little.

"Don't worry, you did. I'm just glad you kissed me back."

_Good, so she admits that she started this whole thing_, he thought _happily. Not my fault at all._ "Why wouldn't I? Apparently you're the only person who'd ever give me a chance and believe in me. So… what now?"

That's a good question, she thought. "Well… I guess the next step is… um, we're celebrating my birthday this Friday night… you should come to my party in Town Square. You _are _the birthday fairy, after all."

Robbie's stomach sank as the guilt set in a little. It only reminded him of how big the age difference between them was. He sat up a little, his expression unreadable. "A birthday party. Hm."

Stephanie looked at him. He'd stopped touching her arm. "What's wrong? This isn't about my age, is it? Because I'll be seventeen, and…" she trailed off when she realized he wasn't going to argue with her. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. I'll understand."

After he didn't say anything for a few seconds, she made a move to get up. Upset, she got to her feet, only to feel a strong hand close over her wrist and pull her back down. She fell right into his lap. "I'm just afraid no one will want me there. Other than you, of course." She smiled and put her arms around his neck.

"If anyone says anything about you being there, I'll kick their ass to the moon. You can count on that. Just don't pull anything stupid… don't disguise yourself or anything. Come as Robbie Rotten, or the birthday fairy. Either one will do, really."

"Oh ha, very funny," he said, rolling his eyes. "Well, if you really want me there-"

"I do. And your sister, too, please."

"If you really do, then I'll be there. I'm sure Gen will come too… I… think you're really weird."

"You are definitely weirder," she said, getting up and giving him her hand. And for the first time, he was the one who kissed her. It was a kiss of reassurance, a seal of camaraderie, something that said that it was their little secret. "Does this mean you like me?" she teased.

"I guess so. Only a little."

She gave him a hug around his waist. Even her holding him made it seem like she never wanted to let go. Once she did let go, they said a quick goodbye and slipped out of the trees, going their separate ways. Stephanie was careful not to look back, but couldn't contain herself from running home with the happiest feeling she'd had the entire summer. _I only wanted to see what he'd do when I kissed him_, she thought, wiping her feet on the mat. He'd been so afraid, she could see it in his eyes. _I guess it was an experiment to see what I'd do, too._ _I'm glad I did_. _Only now, I think that I…_

"I really, really like him," she sighed out loud, as she went inside the house.

-----

Robbie walked back to the billboard, with the strangest feeling he'd had in a long time. He'd never had a change of heart so quickly. Such is the power of the pink one, he thought as he tripped over a rock in his path. Looking around to make sure no one saw him, he continued on. His brain seized as he wondered where Genevive was. He almost was hoping that she'd just gone home to Iceland, even though it was completely unlikely. He didn't know what he would say to her if she were back at his house_. Hi, sorry to worry you_, _I was out kissing the girl you predicted I'd be kissing_? He didn't want to give her the satisfaction of being right. Not immediately, anyways.

Besides that, his heart skipped a beat and then sped up every time he thought about it. Every memory became more and more real the more he thought about it. _A real live girl likes me, _he thought, almost giddy. _She likes _me_ and she doesn't like Sportacus!_ He laughed out loud. But every time he remembered her birthday party, his stomach dropped. She'd said she was turning seventeen. Robbie could barely even remember anything from when he was seventeen. It was a difficult thought to swallow, the gap between them. And the lightening-quick beginning of the entire situation made him think that maybe she hadn't been thinking when she kissed him.

…_And she'll have forgotten me by tomorrow._

Hoping that it wasn't the case, he slipped down the tunnel into his house to find it empty. Instead he found a note next to the phone that said

_Robbie-_

_Don't know where you are, hopefully Stephanie caught up with you and talked some sense into you after that whole weird encounter this afternoon. I, on the other hand, caught up with Bessie and we are going shopping this afternoon for Stephanie's birthday party. The party is this Friday, and surprisingly enough, Bessie said you were invited. So I'd suggest that you'd go buy a present pretty soon. _

_See you tonight! Love,_

_Gen_

Glad that his sister wasn't home, he found that was suddenly very hungry, and ventured into his newfound kitchen to find something to eat. After devouring a roasted chicken, he dragged himself into one of the seldom-used bedrooms and collapsed into yet another dream filled with a certain pink-haired girl. But this time, the dream had already come true.


End file.
